Fighting the COVID War has become something of a COVID Cop comedy. Sadly, however, the victims of clampdowns pay the price.
The following is a rundown of some of the latest incidents related to COVID lockdown and enforcements, which range from repressive to ridiculous.
- Someone (probably not a fan) spied actor Bruce Willis browsing unmasked through the aisles of a Los Angeles RiteAid. He was asked to leave and did so without making a purchase.
- Several underground LA parties were raided by police, who made close to 200 arrests for violation of lockdown orders. According to CBS News, the crackdown was carried out by the Sheriff department’s super-spreader task force, whose goal is to “reduce the spread of COVID-19 and the risk to vulnerable populations in California.”
Dr. Brad Spellberg of the L.A. County-USC Medical Center admitted they have not seen a post-December COVID surge, though he claimed if one were to occur, “the entire Southern California health care system will fall apart.”
- In Manassas, VA, a security guard was charged for being too enthusiastic carrying out orders to remove a patron from a Chipotle restaurant. After a 42-year-old man entered without a mask, the guard, Wayne Eric Witherspoon Jr., allegedly dragged the customer out of the establishment while striking him repeatedly. The guard was arrested on a charge of malicious wounding.
- In Nova Scotia, Halifax, police ramped up lockdown enforcement, issuing $1,000 fines to individuals not wearing masks, including one to a Bedford restaurant delivery driver. According to police, a “Health Protection Act” enforced there requires everyone to wear a mask that covers their nose and mouth while present in a public place.
- Limiting excursions out of the house to once a week in the U.K. may have been too generous, it seems. Ministers seeking fresh clampdown momentum gave police the green light to get even tougher on citizens in forcing compliance with COVID restrictions.
- Montreal police made a cheery announcement that they had handed out 34 fines over the holidays for COVID violations. Their associates in Verdun were busy anew in mid-January, rifling through lunchboxes in efforts to ascertain whether citizens out and about were indeed “essential” workers. A Verdun resident filed a complaint after being accosted on a bus on the way to her job in the snow removal business. She said she presented a letter that attested to her employment.
Not satisfied, officers insisted on seeing the contents of her lunch. She refused at first until threatened with a fine. “My complaint was that he had no right to search my personal belongings and also that he threatened to give me a ticket if I didn’t do what he said,” the woman later explained about her formal complaint.